User:Puravida44/Macarena Valarezo

Macarena Valarezo Fernández de Córdova (Quito, June 2nd, 1972) is an Ecuadorian politician and television host. She was the queen of Quito in 1992, as well as the metropolitan councilwoman for three consecutive terms between 2002 and 2014.

Biography
Macarena Valarezo Fernández de Córdova was born in Quito on June 2nd, 1972, the daughter of politician Gonzalo Valarezo and his wife. She attended primary school at Colegio Los Pinos, secondary school at Colegio Isaac Newton, and higher education at Instituto Cuesta Ordóñez, where she obtained a degree in Radio and Television Production. She later studied marketing at the Universidad del Pacífico, complementing her education with several courses and seminars primarily related politics.

In 2001, she married a man with the last name Luque, whom she had her first son with, named José María. In her relationship with singer Fausto Miño, in which they decided not to marry, she had her second son Joaquín, who was born on October 5th, 2010. Miño and Valarezo separated in 2011.

On December 19th, 2021, she married the chancellor of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Santiago Gangotena; however, Gangotena passed away on April 21, 2023.

Queen of Quito
In November 1992, she won the Queen of Quito beauty pageant. During her year of work as queen of the city she focused on raising funds for the construction of a building where the Centro de Capacitación para Asistentes del Hogar could operate, which later became the Proyecto Apoyo and is currently home to the Centro Infantil Aprendiendo a Vivir,, which serves children with Down syndrome and is the flagship of the Fundación Reina de Quito. In addition, on behalf of the people of Quito, he provided social assistance to the victims of the landslide in La Josefina, in the province of Azuay, delivering two-thousand kits with clothes, rubber boots, mattresses and sleeping bags.

Television career
In 2008 she joined Canal Uno's news staff, becoming the anchor for the Quito studios.

Between 2010 and 2012, she was part of the first three seasons of the program «Así Somos», of Ecuavisa channel, in which she was one of the panelists who touched on women's debate issues. During her participation in the show, and after a series of comments described as segregationist by the GLBT community, in January 2012 the Equidad Foundation awarded her the Neanderthal Anti-Award for her inability to adapt.

Political career
From an early age she was linked to the world of politics through the influence of family members. Her father was a founding member of the Christian Democracy Party, her maternal uncle, Marcelo Fernández de Córdoba, was vice-chancellor of the Republic and participated in the signing of the Acta de Brasilia, while her great-uncle was Camilo Ponce Enríquez, former Ecuadorian president and founder of the Social Christian Party. In 2001 she joined this party and the following year she ran as a candidate for councilwoman in Quito, winning a seat. In 2006 she was reelected to the post.

During most of her work as Councilwoman, she was characterized by her opposition to the New Quito Airport project, which was being built in the Tababela sector, denouncing irregularities in the contracts and in the management of Quiport, the company in charge of the administration of the air terminal. The Councilwoman's continuous denunciations, added to those of other municipal officials, led to an audit of the project and an order from the Comptroller's Office to renegotiate the contract prices.

In 2010, the year in which shows involving the death of animals were banned throughout the country, Valarezo was at the center of the controversy for being the president of the Bullfighting Commission of that edition of the Fiestas de Quito.

On February 29th, 2012, she made the public presentation of the campaign "«El Camino a la Felicidad», a proposal that she materialized together with councilwoman Luisa Maldonado to develop programs for pedagogical, preventive, informative, training and values formation purposes. She was also the creator of the «Seguridad Integral en el Transporte Escolar» project, which established stricter regulations for drivers and the mechanical condition of student transportation vehicles, and the «Programa Pasajero Seguro», which allows passengers to send a text message to verify whether the cab they have taken is safe.

In July 2013, she proposed before the National Assembly a reform to the Criminal, Civil and Children's Codes to address school harassment or bullying, and to punish anyone who induces a child or adolescent to commit suicide.

Controversies
In October 2016, she received a wave of criticism after stating in an interview, in the context of the following year's presidential elections, that she was terrified of the idea of "another deadbeat" winning the presidency and "getting his life together in four years". Days later she reaffirmed his statements, and apologized to those who felt offended. Among those who criticized his words was Lourdes Tibán, presidential pre-candidate of the Pachakutik party.